Cloud storage provides many of the same basic benefits regardless of the hosting plan. Any cloud hosting package has the potential to save a company money, save an IT department time, and provide greater accessibility to business data. The advantages of cloud hosting change, though, with the cloud storage options selected. Knowing the advantages of each type of hosting plan is the best way to ensure cloud hosting provides optimal benefit to a company’s operations.

Cost

Shared hosting is always the cheapest cloud hosting option, and with good reason. In shared hosting, multiple clients’ data and websites are housed on the same network of servers with no real boundaries between data. This makes little work for the hosting company beyond maintenance of the servers, and clients benefit from the cheaper pricing.

Although shared hosting is the most inexpensive option, it’s not the best choice for most businesses. Shared hosting provides no dedicated resources, which means a business is always competing for the memory and bandwidth in the resource pool, which affects the operation of a company’s website.

For businesses seeking to save money, virtual private server (VPS) hosting provides a cost-effective alternative. The setup is largely the same, but the servers on the network are broken into individual partitions with dedicated resources, so clients know exactly which resources are available to them.

Scalability

Cloud hosting provides the ability to increase the number of servers in use at any time, allowing the available resources to be expanded when needed. This is what the term scalability refers to in cloud hosting and additional resources are available near-instantly. When a business’s website gets a lot more hits than expected, company leaders don’t have to fret about the website ceasing to function. They just upgrade the hosting plan to keep things running smoothly and the business only pays for the resources that it uses.

Security, Protection & Recovery

When it comes to security and control, dedicated servers are at the top of the cloud hosting kingdom. Dedicated servers provide the same access expected from the cloud, but the server remains mostly under the control of the client. This means the server gets no interference from outside hands, and clients get the freedom to install any applications or security measures desired. Far more expensive than either shared hosting or VPS, dedicated hosting puts itself out of reach for many smaller businesses.

The silver lining for those who can’t afford dedicated servers is that cloud hosts’ reputations depend on their ability to protect client data, and they take security seriously. For business owners who worry about the thin boundaries between data in shared hosting, VPS provides some additional security. Like dedicated servers, VPSs allow clients to install their own operating systems, applications and additional security measures. Also, any cloud hosting option—shared, VPS or dedicated—provides the option for automatic backups, making data recovery just part of the package.

Narrowing Down a Wise Choice

There’s no one cloud storage solution for every business. Businesses that need to save money may find the greatest advantage in the cost-saving world of shared hosting, whereas businesses that store confidential data may require the absolute autonomy of a dedicated server. As a solution that falls in between, VPS may be most appealing to businesses looking for both control and savings.

Whichever hosting package proves the right fit for a company, all businesses can expect some advantage from joining the cloud. Even if the ability to access data and programs from anywhere in the world is the only advantage cloud hosting provides a business, that’s a huge benefit when it comes to customer satisfaction. Never again will a customer or client have to wait for an answer simply because no one’s in the office.